Jaganath Temple, Puri.


Lord Jaganath temple is situated  at Puri, Orissa. Orissa is a state near Bay of Bengal, the eastren sea coast of India. There are 3 prominent temples in this state. The Lord Jaganath Temple at Puri, Sun Temple at Konark and Lingaraj Temple at Bhubaneswar. These are called the Golden Triangle of Orissa. The Jaganath Temple at Puri is one of the prominent Hindu temples of India. It is one of the temple of char dam Yatra. It is also called as Sri Mandira. The Lord Jaganath means God of Universe. 

The temple premises is vast with four gates on four sides namely

East Gate: Lions Gate.
Western Gate: Tiger Gate.
North Gate: Elephant Gate.
South Gate: Horse Gate.


The presiding deities in the temple are Lord Balabhadra, Godess Subhadra and Lord Jaganatha. The three deities are known as Trimurti. The trio are seated on a pedestal called Ratnadevi in the sanctum . The idols are made of neemwood. Along with these three Sudharshan is also worshipped as chaturdha murthy.

According to Bhagavata Purana,  there is a story behind the Jaganath idol in this temple. At the end of Dwapara Yuga Dwaraka Nagaram had immersed into the sea while Lord Krishna stood at the banks of the sea before he reached Vaikuntam and he remained at that place as Lord Jaganth.

This is the only temple where the deities are made out of neem wood as all other Hindu temple deities are made out of metal. As it is made out of log wood it gets decayed over a period of time and it need to be replaced. So once in 12 years the deities are again made with new neem logs specially selected by a group of persons with strict specifications. The neem logs are carried through the eastren gate called Lions get inside the temple premises. After the images are made a mysterious object called brahma is placed inside the new idols and the old idols are buried in koil vaikunta. This is called as Nava Kalebara Festival or Body Change over Ceremony. This is the only temple where the main deities are sculpted and replaced again and again. 

Along with this another important festival is chariot festival, celebrated in Ashada month, that is the fourth of the Telugu calendar year. ( see other article Jaganath Rath Yatra from my blog)



Narendra Tank: Narendra Tank is one of the Holy Tanks. the tank is at a distance of about 1 km from Jaganatha Temple towards the North. The Chandan Yatra Festival beginning from Akshaya Trutiya of the month of Baishaka (April-May) continues at this Tank for 21 days. lord Jaganatha and Panchayat Pandavas have their pleasure cruise around the tank in well decorated boats. 

A prominent Vishnu temple to be visited in Eastren India.

Happy Piligrimage.

Feel free to post your comments.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Siddhi Vinayaka Temple , Zaheerabad.

Image
Sri siddi vinayaka temple is at Rejinthal, Zaheerabad, Medak district, Telengana. It  is nearer to Hyderabad and is at a distance of 108 kilometers.  Zaheerabad was previously called Pedda Ekkheli. It was later named as Zaheerabad by the name of  the paigah nawab,  Zaheerabad Yar Jung. The idol in the temple is Vinayaka (Lord Ganesha) called as Siddhi Vinayaka. The temple though looks like recently built it has a history of 207 years. The H.H. Shiva Ram Bath  Jyoshi of Maharashtra prayed Lord Ganesh  in this place while he was on the way to Tirupathi. Pleased with his prayers Lord Ganesha came out of the earth in that place as Siddi Vinayaka. The name siddhi indicates success. People who visit this temple are granted success. The idol in this temple is a svayambhu (came itself from earth). The idol is beautiful which is of rock and decorated with sandalwood paste.  Lord  Siddhi Vinayaka faces south side and this is the only temple of lord Ganesha facing south
Read more

Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple Simhachalam

Image
Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple is situated in Simahachalam, 15k ms from Visakhapatnam. The main idol of this temple is Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy. Lakshmi is the consort of Narasimha Swamy. There are 10 Incarnations of Lord Vishnu.  Varaha is the third and Narasimha is the Fourth  incarnation. The idol in this temple is the combination of two incarnations of Lord Vishnu. The history of Simahachalam temple links back to Purana's and there are some interesting facts about this history. Those facts goes as: There was a demon called Hiranyakasipu. Prahlada was the son of the demon King Hiranyakasipu .  Prahlada was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. Being a demon Hiranyakasipu did not like that.  He forced him to stop worshipping Vishnu and punished him severely. There are four places where he punished his son. They are: 1.Simahachalam 2.Kruthasoucham 3.Harampapam 4.Ahobalam. At Visakhapatnam sea Hiranyakasipu threw a
Read more

Kamakshi Temple at Kancheepuram.

Image
Kamakshi temple is one of the prominent Hindu temples and it is one of the fifity one shaktipeetas. It is situated at Kancheepuram, Tamilnadu. The diety in this temple is Kamakshi a form of Parvathi. This is the only temple of Parvathi in Kancheepuram. Ayodhya, Madhura, Gaya, Kaasi, Kanchi, Avanthika Puri, Dvaravathi Shaiva sapthaithe mokshadayini. Above poem is of the names of seven Moksha Nagarams out of which Kanchi is the only one situated in  South India. In the name Kamakshi , Ka represents Godess Saraswathi, Ma represents Godess Lakshmi and Akshi means Eyes.  Kamakshi is having  Lakhmi and Saraswathi as its eyes. The godess  done penace by sitting on the tip of the needle sorrounded by Pancha Agni's (Five holy fires) to be freed from livelihood. The Godess Kamakshi is in a sitting position in a lotus flower, the posture called padmasana.This place is called gayatri mandapa. She  holds sugar cane, bow on her left arm and 5 flowers and parrot on her rig
Read more